Pubdate: Sat, 5 Apr 2008
Source: Windsor Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2008 The Windsor Star
Contact: http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/501
Author: Jonathan Fowlie, Canwest News Service
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

DRUG REHAB CENTRE AT A CROSSROAD

It's not clear exactly when Jeremy Ward hit bottom. It could have 
been last October when the 20-year-old cocaine addict crammed a 
handful of pills down his throat, hoping the massive combination of 
antipsychotics and Valium would ease the pain of being dumped.

One thing was certain: Ward needed help.

And after about eight years mixing cocaine, marijuana and alcohol -- 
and with a baby boy on the way -- the veteran addict needed more than 
just a trip to detox to slow the speeding train of his addiction.

He needed a paradigm shift.

On the weekend, as he celebrated his 150th consecutive day of 
sobriety, Ward is a changed man.

Trading his crack pipe for a paint roller, the lanky redhead has 
assumed a drug-free workaday existence at a new recovery community 
just outside Prince George.

Started in December by Liberal MLA Lorne Mayencourt, the Baldy Hughes 
Therapeutic Community represents a new approach to rehabilitation.

The idea involves a long-term live-in program where addicts use peer 
support, a lack of easy access to drugs and a highly structured 
lifestyle to help them slowly tighten their grips on sobriety.

Clients at the site -- there are 14 now, though Mayencourt plans to 
eventually increase that to 500 -- are currently working on a 
rigorous daily schedule to restore and renovate the Cold War-era 
Baldy Hughes military base where the community is set up. After that 
is done, the clients will do a variety of jobs ranging from growing 
food to producing products that can be sold to help finance the program.

The model is fashioned in the image of Italy's San Patrignano, an 
almost 30-year-old recovery community where more than 20,000 addicts 
have used peer support, skills training and a highly structured work 
schedule to move from desperation to stability.

Though some feel San Patrignano, and its unwavering focus on 
abstinence, is the wrong approach, a university study that tracked a 
group of clients from the Italian facility found it to have a 72 per 
cent success rate.

After going through detox and a standard therapy program, addicts at 
his Baldy Hughes facility each commit to live in the community for 
three years completely drug free, and will eventually have access to 
a range of services that include high school classes, recreation 
facilities and trades training.

For the 14 clients currently at the facility, the approach is already 
paying dividends.

"I think a lot of people realize they have been through treatment 
centre after treatment centre and that when they walk out the door 
they don't have a good solid plan," said Scot Durward, a former 
addict and the program co-ordinator. "This offers a long-term 
solution to that. There are 14 people here that are residents and at 
the end of the day everyone is going to bed clean and sober. That's huge."

Being in the business of managing career addicts, the Baldy Hughes 
Therapeutic Community has not found that success without an equal 
share of challenge.

In the almost four months the community has been running, about 12 of 
the 30 clients brought into the program have had to leave.

One of those left over the tight restrictions the community imposes 
on smoking -- clients are limited to seven cigarettes a day, a number 
that will decrease as time passes.

Another was asked to leave over revelations that his criminal history 
broke a community rule banning anyone convicted of a sex offence, 
arson or any violent crimes such as manslaughter or murder.

Five have had to go because they slipped and used drugs while in the 
program, Mayencourt said, and the others over a variety of other 
separate issues.

For Mayencourt, many of these stories can be chalked up to the 
realities of dealing with a vulnerable and unstable population.

But Mayencourt says he has learned a great deal, and that the program 
needed a kick-start to show people what was possible.

He said now he is looking to hire about five staff members to run the 
program, including an executive director, a life skills counsellor 
and other professionals who can help the clients improve various 
elements of their lives. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake